


Bring Me Pizza, Bring Me Joy

by PimpedOutGreenEars



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: AU, Alcohol, College Setting, M/M, Sex mentioned, too much conversation about pizza
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 21:16:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7454224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PimpedOutGreenEars/pseuds/PimpedOutGreenEars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt wants warm pizza and Alby. He's not necessarily doing a great job securing both of those things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bring Me Pizza, Bring Me Joy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a couple of months ago, and now I'm finally getting around to posting it. Let me know what you think.

Newt was sitting on his couch flipping through movie channels when he heard a knock on his apartment door. Newt quickly glanced at his watch before smiling to himself and practically jumping up to get the door.

He quickly crossed the short distance from his couch to the door and upon opening it found exactly who he was hoping for.

“Right on time, mate,” Newt said smiling at Alby from across a pizza box.

“I’ve been told someone has to be,” Alby replied with a knowing look on his face.

Newt couldn’t help but grin.

Newt had met Alby around four months ago when, for the first time all semester, his pizza had shown up on time. Before Alby had come into his life, bringing pizza that was still warm with him, there had only been two other delivery boys that worked at Glade Pizza.

The first was Gally Poulter, who had just happened to be Newt’s roommate his freshman year. Well, he had been for the first two weeks. Newt and Gally had fought so much that their RA had changed their roommate arrangements with a couple of other guys who also hadn’t been getting along well. That had been how Newt had ended up being roommates with the man who would go onto be his first college relationship, and then later the ex and roommate who he still sometimes hooked up with when the mood was right. Minho was a gem.

Anyway, Newt had been relieved to have Gally out of his hair. But that had only lasted for so long. As anyone who went to Wicked University knew, there was only one pizza place in town that was worth getting pizza from, and that place was Glade Pizza. And up until his sophomore year that had been fine.

Then Gally had started working there. And from the first time Gally had met Newt at his dorm room door it had been obvious that that wasn’t going to work. To say there was a slight grudge between them would be an understatement. And it didn’t get better once Gally knew Newt’s address. Newt’s orders always showed up cold and Newt always tipped a penny just to make sure Gally knew he hadn’t forgotten.

Newt had taken to requesting anyone but Gally to deliver his pizzas. But as luck would have it up until four months ago there had only been one other delivery boy and that was Ben Sheffield.

Ben was by all means very likable. The only problem was that he was a talker. He’d take a few orders out at a time and by the time he got to Newt’s his pizza was almost always cold. And if it wasn’t Ben would make conversation about nothing for twenty minutes, insuring that the pizza would _get_ cold.

But then God had shined a light upon Newt and given him Alby. Alby who was always on time, Alby who started adding extra pineapple to his Hawaiian pizza at no extra charge, Alby who was _fucking hot_.

“How much longer do you have to go on your shift?” Newt asked, not really wanting Alby to leave yet.

In the time Alby had begun delivering Newt’s pizza’s Newt had developed a pretty big crush on the shorter man. Newt had been trying to figure out how to ask him out practically since they met, but his nerves always got the best of him. But he was making progress. As it was they had exchanged cell phone numbers, although most of their communication revolved around Newt wanting to know if he was working, and occasionally they saw each other around campus long enough to talk for a minute. Yep, they were practically married.

“Couple more hours,” Alby said shrugging. “You done with finals or you crammin’?”

“Last one was today, thank fuck. So I’m getting bloody arseholed to celebrate,” Newt explained.

Finals week had been a pain in the ass, but for him the pain was over. At least until his internship started in a couple of weeks. But that was a different monster. For now he was having his pre-celebration party before the actual party at the end of the week with his friends.

“Anyone actually understand the words you say?” Alby asked in a teasing tone.

“Sod off, shank,” Newt said before finally grabbing his pizza and handing Alby a wad of cash. “How many finals do you have left?”

“Just one on Friday morning,” Alby said as he leaned against Newt’s doorframe.

“You off to anywhere after that?” Newt asked, wondering if Alby would be around town during the summer.

“Nah, I’ve got an internship in town. What about you? Going back home?” Alby sounded genuinely curious.

“Nah, I’ve got one too. Guess we’ll both be stuck in town.” Newt couldn’t help thinking that he’d just made the perfect segway in conversation to finally ask Alby out.

“Guess so,” Alby replied, a small smile on his face as he straightened up, looking like he was preparing to leave.

“You should come to this party I’m going to on Saturday,” Newt said quickly.

Alby raised a brow.

“It’s an end of the year celebration kind of thing. Some people from school, ya know?” Newt elaborated.

“Yeah, maybe,” Alby replied.

Newt wasn’t surprised by the response. Alby didn’t strike him as a huge partier simply based on the fact that he didn’t seem super sociable. It wasn’t like Alby wasn’t likable, just that he seemed to take some time to warm up to people. Newt had liked Alby way before it seemed like Alby had had any opinion on him at all. But still, Newt thought a party could be fun. It was the perfect laid back environment to finally tell Alby he liked him. Sober Newt couldn’t do it, but he had faith that drunk Newt could.

“I’ll text you about it,” Newt said easily, not wanting to hold Alby up from any other deliveries he might have.

“Alright, good that,” Alby said before turning and heading down the hallway of the rundown apartment complex.

Newt turned back and closed the door to his apartment, a grin on his face. That was the wonderful thing about having a crush, even after they left your sight you could still be happy just thinking about them.

Of course at the moment Newt had a few other things to be happy about, too. He was done with finals, he had pizza, and perhaps most importantly he had a fridge full of beer. It was going to be a good night, and then tomorrow afternoon he could work on convincing Alby to come to the party.

…And then panic about how to turn it into a date, but that was a problem for later.

Newt went to the fridge and grabbed a couple of beers before returning to his seat on the couch. Once he found that right movie he would be ready to go.

* * *

 

Finding the right movie didn’t take very long and before Newt knew it he was feeling very light and very happy.

He’d been flipping through the TV channels for a while- or maybe he hadn’t been. Telling time was something he’d lost the ability to do. But it _seemed_ like it’d been a while.

And he’d been really struggling trying to find something that didn’t make him laugh so loud. He needed to be _quiet_. He had neighbors and Minho had a final in the morning—

_Oh_ , yeah, _Minho_ _wasn’t home_. He kept forgetting that. Kept yelling at Minho and telling him how funny something was only for it to finally dawn on him that Minho wasn’t being a shank and ignoring him, he just wasn’t home.

He had to study because he had a test in the morning. Newt didn’t have to because he was done with his tests _. Haaaa, ha, ha_.

Newt got to be drunk and Minho didn’t~

Newt was so amused by his thoughts that he rolled off the couch, landing on the television remote. The fall only made him laugh harder as he tried to reach behind himself for the remote, but somewhere mid struggle he looked at the TV and noticed that there were two people on the screen having sex.

He stared for a few seconds, consumed by flesh on flesh and all of a sudden he wasn’t laughing anymore.

Suddenly he just felt unbearably lonely. Sex would fix that. He knew it would feel good to have hands on him. To have someone moving against him.

It would be nice if it was Alby.

Alby would be good at sex. At least Newt thought he would be. He seemed like he’d be a good lover. Like he’d say nice things and play with Newt’s hair, but also he’d hold Newt’s hips hard and bite a little.

Yeah, Alby would be good to have sex with. And he could bring pizza for after and then after they ate it they could have sex again.

That’d be pretty awesome. Alby was pretty awesome.

Newt managed to fish his phone out of his pocket, intending to text Alby to come over with some clever message like, ‘come do newty in his booty.’ But last second it hit him that that probably wasn’t a good idea.

Newt froze as he reviewed the thought. He couldn’t text Alby about sex. He wasn’t really sure why… He had his phone. He could—

No. Because they’d never done that before and so he shouldn’t. Yeah. No sex from Alby.

But yes to sex.

He could have sex with Minho. That would be okay.

“Minho! Minho! I need sex!” Newt waited a moment before screaming again. “Why do you keep ignoring me you bloody shank! I’m trying—I’m trying to give you a damn gift! It’s my arse and it’s beautiful!”

Alby would never treat him like this. Alby wouldn’t leave him waiting. Newt once again considered texting and realized with surprise that his phone was in his hand. When did that happen?

It took Newt two tries to open up his contact list, but once he did he was able to successfully scroll down the list. In his phone he saw two contacts that made him stop. The one on top was Mean Hoe, the one under is was Pizza Savior.

Newt stared at the two contacts, his eyes blurring. He was texting for sex. He knew that. And it was very important that he text the right person. Which was Alby even though he wanted it to be Minho. Wait—No that was backwards. It was Minho even though he wanted it to be Alby.

Because Alby was bloody wonderful and hot and smart and Newt wanted to cuddle with him and hold hands and shit.

But Minho was easy. He was a good booty call. Sometimes he’d make coffee in the morning.

Yes, that was right.

Newt smiled, finally having figured out what he was doing. He quickly, but very carefully, typed out the message, _‘Come have sex with me.’_

Once he’d accomplished that he dropped his phone to the floor in favor of reaching for a piece of pizza from the box. He pulled out a cold slice and began eating it contently.

He passed out before he reached the crust.

* * *

 

When Newt woke up the next morning he was happy that his head didn’t hurt, but the happiness was brief as the pain in his gut sent him scrambling for the toilet.

When Newt reached the porcelain throne just in time for all of his stomach contents to flow into it, he thanked God that the bathroom was so close to the living room.

Once he was done expelling all of the booze and pizza from his system Newt sat for a while, trying to remember the events of the night prior. As far as he could tell there wasn’t much to remember. Pizza, booze, bad TV.

Oh, and he’d booty called Minho, not that the shank had bothered to show up. Was probably too busy studying with Tommy. It was funny the way Minho started studying so much when Tommy had transferred into their university. And by funny Newt meant Minho’s crush was pretty obvious. At least to everyone who wasn’t Tommy.

Newt finally dragged himself to his feet and flushed the toilet before he went to the sink and began brushing his teeth. 

He only had to look at himself in the mirror briefly to decide he needed a shower. He’d also need to clean up the living room. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it since his first priority that morning had been making it to the toilet, but he was sure it was a wreck.

He groaned. Drinking always seemed so fun until the day after.

Once his teeth were brushed and his breath didn’t smell like vomit anymore, Newt climbed into the shower, taking care not to knock down any of Minho’s numerous hygiene supplies. The boy had more shampoo and body wash than Newt figured he could use, but then again Minho also knew any time Newt used any of his products, so maybe he was wrong.

Newt made sure to use his own supplies. The last thing he needed was Minho complaining about his shampoo buying cycle being off.

As Newt showered he let his thoughts drift over to Alby. He smiled thinking about the other man. He needed to make sure he texted Alby more details about the party on Saturday. He also needed to think about how he was going to turn it into a date or how he was going to ask Alby out at the party.

How awesome was it that Alby was going to be in town all summer too? Newt grinned to himself again. He’d initially been a little disappointed about not getting an internship close to home, but the idea of staying in the city he’d grown to love, where Alby just happened to be also, raised his spirits significantly.

He really wanted to spend more time with Alby. Pizza delivery talks weren’t even close to enough for Newt. He wanted to watch movies together, get coffee in the mornings, take walks through the dog park, eat a damn pizza together for a change.

But to do those things he had to overpower the nervousness that set in whenever he thought about actually telling Alby he _liked_ him. Small actions of flirtation were easy, but when it came to more than that Newt struggled. Feelings were hard.

Newt finally finished his shower and toweled off before pulling his boxers on and going into the living room to assess the damage.

Really it wasn’t too bad. There were pizza crumbs everywhere and beer bottles covered the shabby little coffee table, and it looked like there was a half finished piece of pizza on the floor, but other than that things didn’t look that bad. It would all be easy to clean up.

As Newt went over to the small kitchen area to grab a garbage bag he heard his phone ping, signaling that he had a text message waiting for him.

Newt grabbed the garbage bag before walking back to the living room and looking around for his phone. He found it on the floor lying next to a half eaten piece of pizza.

Newt picked it up and quickly looked at the message on the screen.

**Pizza Savior  
** _Sorry I didn’t answer you last night. I was surprised._

For a second Newt’s brow raised in confusion before it hit him that Alby must have been referring to Newt inviting him to the party. Newt simply chuckled before he double tapped the message and sent his reply quickly, looking more at the mess before him than the message.

**Newt  
** _It’s fine. You can say yes now :)_

Newt went along the span of the coffee table throwing beer bottles in his bag as he went until his phone pinged again.

**Pizza Savior  
** _Really?_

Newt lightly shook his head. What part of ‘I’ll text you about it’ had made his offer seem like it would expire?

**Newt  
** _Yes really. It’ll be fun._

Newt waited a minute for a reply before he went back to what he was doing. He’d managed to pick up all of the bottles before his phone went off again.

**Pizza Savior  
** _You don’t think it’s too sudden or soon or anything? I mean, not that I don’t want to. Just, you sure?_

“What are you even going on about Alby?” Newt muttered to himself.

Seriously why was Alby being so weird about it? Newt knew he didn’t seem like the party type, but still. Another ping came before Newt could confront him.

**Pizza Savior  
** _I just don’t want things to be weird… I like talking to you._

Newt felt his face flush and was very thankful that he was home by himself. Minho would bloody laugh at him for ages.

But since he was alone Newt could enjoy the complement. Alby wasn’t super overt with what he was feeling and him coming out and telling Newt something as small as that he liked talking to him made Newt’s heart race.

But still, why was he being weird unless—Oh, was Alby actually nervous about meeting his friends? Was that the disconnect? Did he think that not being one-on-one would make things weird?

Newt hadn’t even considered that. All of his close friends already knew he had a thing for Alby and he couldn’t imagine them not trying to make Alby as comfortable as possible.

**Newt  
** _I like talking to you too, which is why I’m sure it’ll be fun. And I know everyone will like you._

Newt barely sat his phone down before it pinged again.

**Pizza Savior  
** _Everyone?_

Newt typed out his response before laying his phone down to go get the vacuum cleaner out of the only closet in his and Minho’s whole apartment.

**Newt  
** _Yeah, did you think it’d just be you and me? Lol. Don’t worry you’ll like them._

Newt got the vacuum cleaner to the living room and plugged in before his phone went off again.

**Pizza Savior  
** _How many people?_

Newt smiled and shook his head. He actually found Alby’s nervousness endearing.

**Newt**  
_Just a few. Maybe 10 or so? It’ll be pretty intimate :)_

Newt set to work vacuuming the floor and by the time he finished he had another text.

**Pizza Savior  
** _You do this kind of thing often?_

Newt smiled thinking of all the good times he’d had with his friends since coming to university. He wished they all got a chance to hang out at the same time more often. Sadly it wasn’t often they were all on the same schedule.

**Newt  
** _Nah, I wish lol. Too hard to get everyone on the same schedule._

Newt rolled the vacuum cleaner back to its closet and shut the door before returning to the newly cleaned living room. Well, he still needed to take the garbage into the kitchen to sit with the rest or the trash until trash day, but other than that.

His phone went off again and this time Newt plopped down on the couch before answering it.

**Pizza Savior  
** _I don’t know about this._

Newt frowned. He was not letting Alby’s nerves keep them from being together.

**Newt  
** _Well I do, ya worrywart, so slim it. Come and have fun. I promise I won’t leave your bloody side :)_

Newt wondered if the smiley face was too much. He didn’t think so, but it was hard to tell. He and Alby had never texted much. Newt would text Alby to see if he was working and Alby would occasionally send Newt a text about Gally or Ben doing something stupid at work, but that was about it. It was kind of nice texting him though. Of course even more Newt would like to see him in person.

**Pizza Savior  
** _I just really need to think about it._

Newt sighed. Alby was being difficult. Or was he playing hard to get?

Newt snickered at the thought. Like Alby would be the type to play games. He was too direct.

**Newt  
** _Fine, think about it. But you should think about it while bringing me breakfast pizza. Only if you’re working of course._

Newt sent the message but a second later decided to send another before he could stop himself.

**Newt**  
_And if you have a minute you can hang around and eat some too. Keep a poor hungover Brit company._

Newt wondered if Alby would go for that. He knew there were other circumstances such as having to deliver other orders, if he was working, but Newt still hoped he’d say yes. Then again if he did say yes did that make it a date? Had he just asked Alby out?

He hadn’t meant to, but he’d be really happy if that was the case.

**Pizza Savior  
** _My shift’s about to end. I’ll bring one over and we can talk about stuff. Good that?_

Newt threw his fist in the air. He didn’t know if he’d call it a date or not but it was _something_. It was more than a five minute conversation anyway.

**Newt**  
_Good that!_

Newt sank back into the couch grinning ear to ear. Less than 20 minutes and Alby would be over.

He should probably have more clothes on than just his boxers. The thought sent Newt to his feet and into his bedroom to find something to wear.

He grabbed a clean t-shirt and then spent a few minutes debating between cargo shorts and skinny jeans before he threw the jeans back in his dresser drawer. He’d already told Alby he was hungover; skinny jeans practically _screamed_ that he was trying too hard. Really putting on pants of any kind and a clean shirt was demonstrating an amazing amount of effort.

Once he was dressed he ran a hand through his hair and went back to the living room to grab the bag of trash on the floor and take it to the kitchen. Newt was trying to shove the bag into the already existing bag of kitchen trash when Minho walked in, stretching his arms over his head.

“Guess who’s done with his last final?” Minho asked triumphantly.

“You. Congratulations,” Newt said sparing Minho a quick look. “Now get out.”

“Um, excuse you? I’ve been out all night, shank.” Minho asked, shooting Newt a glare.

“Yeah, well, I’ve got company coming over,” Newt said as he finally managed to fit one bag inside the other. “Besides if you had wanted to be here so badly you would have answered my booty call last night.”

“Uh, dude, you didn’t booty call me. I would have come home for that,” Minho said before he plopped down on the couch. “And who’s coming over?”

“Yes, I did. You were probably too busy looking into Tommy’s big, puppy dog eyes to notice,” Newt replied with a smirk.

Minho laughed bitterly.

“Yeah, well, Thomas’ puppy dog eyes wouldn’t have noticed if I left,” Minho said, the TV remote in his hand although he wasn’t using it.

“Study date didn’t go well?”

“Wasn’t a date. Brenda, Teresa, and Aris can all testify to that,” Minho said, turning to give Newt a smile that was more annoyed than happy.

“The whole bloody Tommy appreciation squad was there, huh?” Newt asked.

“Yep, and he just didn’t even know who to make googly eyes at first,” Minho told him bitterly.

“You really aren’t liking the competition, are you?” Newt asked as he sat down beside Minho.

“Thomas isn’t a competition, he’s a person who can’t make up his mind.” The way Minho was pouting at the TV screen almost made Newt laugh.

“You know, I seem to recall you were all about him being a competition until you realized _you_ had competition,” Newt remarked.

Minho turned to him and glared.

“Coming from the guy who probably booty called a chick last night,” Minho huffed.

“No, I definitely booty called _you_. I remember—Oh God.”

“What? Did you actually booty call a chick? Also, just so we’re clear, I don’t have competition. I have better hair and arms than all of them. Put together.”

Newt ignored Minho and instead scrolled through his earlier messages to Alby. He _could not_ have sent that message to Alby. He remembered _thinking_ about it. But in the end common sense had ruled! He remembered choosing Minho’s contact number!

But upon reaching the message from the night before he realized he must have been wrong because there it was, clear as day.

**Newt  
** _Come have sex with me._

Newt had messed up and—Oh God that was what Alby had been talking about all bloody morning! Not the stupid party! Alby thought—Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. Newt could not _believe_ he had messed up so badly.

“Uh, dude? You okay? You look like you’re going to pass out,” Minho said as he put his hand on Newt’s forehead.

“I didn’t text you, I texted _Alby,_ ” Newt groaned.

Minho immediately began laughing.

“It’s not bloody funny!” Newt yelled, glaring at Minho and trying to be intimidating.

Minho didn’t look intimidated, but he did stop laughing, although the grin on his face suggested that it might only be temporary.

“Aw, Newt, cheer up. Just because he didn’t show up to get some doesn’t mean he doesn’t like you. Maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment to ram you,” Minho comforted, if you could call it that.

“No, you don’t understand! We’ve been texting all morning, Minho! Just—Just look,” Newt said as he tossed his phone into Minho’s lap. “I invited him to the party on Saturday. _That’s_ what I thought he was shucking talking about.”

Minho didn’t have to read for very long before the laughter started up again.

“Oh, man, Newt! He thinks you’re inviting him to an orgy! An _intimate_ orgy!”

“I didn’t know that’s what he was talking about!” Newt yelled, pulling at his hair. Could life be more embarrassing?

A knock on the door explained the question.

“No, no! That’s him! I haven’t had time to explain!” Newt whisper/yelled at Minho.

“Well, you’re going to have to now. The poor guy thinks he’s here to discuss weird 10 person friend sex,” Minho said with a grin.

“I can’t do this,” Newt groaned as another knock sounded from the door.

“Don’t be such a drama queen. He obviously likes you if he’s willing to talk about this,” Minho said before placing Newt’s phone in his lap. “That or he’s into some freaky stuff and is going to be standing naked except for a trench coat at our door.”

“You aren’t helping!” Newt hissed as he stood up to go to the door. He couldn’t just leave Alby in the hallway forever.

Newt took a deep breath once he reached the door and tried to calm himself. Minho’s revived laughter didn’t help.

Newt quickly opened the door and saw Alby, hand raised like he was about to knock again.

“Uh, hi. I brought pizza,” Alby said awkwardly as he rubbed his hand against the back of his neck. He looked embarrassed. Newt felt like he was going to die.

“I am so sorry,” Newt said, guilty and embarrassed simply because of the way Alby was looking at him. “This morning I thought we were talking about the party I invited you to.”

“Oh,” Alby answered simply. “That’s kind of a relief.”

“I didn’t even know I sent you that text last night. I was wasted and I thought I was texting him,” Newt sputtered out as he pointed behind himself to where Minho was sitting.

Minho waved. “Hey, Alby!”

“Hey,” Alby said stiffly.

“So I’m just really sorry that happened,” Newt finished.

“It’s fine, here’s your pizza,” Alby said briskly, pushing the pizza forward into Newt’s hands.

“Uh, you can still stay if you want,” Newt blanched, not wanting Alby to leave, especially since the other boy seemed very detached all of a sudden.

“I don’t want to interrupt,” Alby said quietly before turning to go. “I’ll take care of the bill.”

Newt was taken aback. How had he managed to make things even worse? Shouldn’t Newt _not_ planning a group sex party have made things better?

“What just happened?” Newt turned to Minho, not even bothering to close the door.

“Uh, you made him think we were dating? Probably should have left out that the text you sent was for me,” Minho said easily.

“Oh, bloody—Alby, wait!” Newt called as he ran out the door. He could hear Minho get up to follow him, but he ignored it.

“Alby!” Newt yelled at the man who was about to board the lift.

Alby turned to him, ignoring the opening lift doors.

“Okay, that came out so wrong. I’m not dating Minho, I swear! We were once, it was bloody awful, and now we just live together, and it’s really not much better. And sometimes I use him as a booty call, but it’s usually not even satisfying,” Newt hurried to explain.

“Uh, I’m standing right behind you, slinthead. And I call bullshit on at least a fourth of that,” Minho argued.

“Bugger off!” Newt growled before turning back to Alby.

“It’s none of my business what you two do,” Alby said with a shrug, not looking Newt directly in the eye.

A second later he started to turn toward the lift, causing Newt to panic. What if he never saw Alby again because of this? What if he stopped delivering his pizzas and answering his texts? What if he ignored him when they saw each other on campus?

No bloody way was that happening!

“But I want it to be!” Newt screamed.

Alby turned looking taken aback.

“I fancy you. A lot. I have for a while. And last night I wanted to send that text to you, but I kept telling myself not to, even though you were the one I wanted,” Newt confessed. “I asked you to that party last night because I really like you and wanted to use it to ask you out, or turn it into a date, or _something_. I just—I like you. And I’ve been really shy about it. And none of this is going according to plan. I didn’t mean to ask you to have group sex or tell you that I wanted to bang my roommate. I just want to eat pizza and hold hands with you.”

“For real?” Alby asked hesitantly.

“O’Course for real,” Newt replied with a nervous smile. “Would you be into that?”

“Pretty obvious he is,” Minho muttered.

“Shut up!”

“Bugger off!”

Minhio put his hands up in defense as Newt and Alby’s yelling came out in unison.

“Fine, whatever. I’ll go back into the apartment,” Minho said with an amused smile on his face.

As Minho walked back toward the apartment Newt and Alby turned back to each other.

“So…” Newt said curiously.

“Yeah, I’d be into that,” Alby replied, hand rubbing the back of his neck as he looked up shyly at Newt.

“Good that,” Newt replied, a smile on his face although a new kind of awkwardness had set in.

For a minute they stood silently in the hallway, neither saying anything. Then Alby finally stuck out his hand for Newt, who accepted it after only a moment’s hesitation. Upon connecting their hands they were both grinning like idiots.

“So, pizza then?” Newt asked.

Alby nodded.

They walked a few steps before Alby stopped, bringing both of them to a halt.

“What?” Newt asked.

“Nothing. Never mind,” Alby said, his eyes darting away from Newt’s, a faint color on his dark cheeks.

“No, what?” Newt asked, his heart clenching when Alby looked up at him.

Newt and Alby stood looking at each other for what felt like a very long time. The air around them suddenly felt very humid and Newt swore it was so quiet that he could hear his blood moving inside him. Newt was about to say something or start walking or do anything really when Alby finally leaned his head up and began moving his lips toward Newt’s.

Newt’s eyes closed as their lips touched, and it was like a million wonderful things were happening all at once. Newt turned his head slightly to get a better angle as he wrapped his arms around Alby’s middle. He could feel Alby’s hands move to his neck and as one hand began playing with his hair a hot rush shot down the entirety on his spine.

Newt was about to pull Alby closer, being in the middle of the hallway be damned, when a cough from Minho caused them to pull apart.

Minho was standing outside of his and Newt’s apartment door, his arms crossed.

“Look, I’m all for exhibitionism, but if you guys aren’t back in here in 30 seconds I’m eating this pizza by myself,” Minho announced before slipping back into the apartment.

Newt laughed as he and Alby untangled themselves.

“I’m sorry about him. Truly,” Newt apologized as he grinned lovingly down at Alby. “And I swear nothing’s going on between us, just in case I haven’t said that enough.”

“It’s none of my business what you guys do,” Alby replied while taking Newt’s hand again.

One of Newt’s eyebrows shot up in question.

“We are dating now, right?” Newt questioned a fear that they weren’t suddenly developing.

“Yeah!” Alby answered quickly and a little loudly. “I just meant I trust you, ya know?” Alby said, calming down from his outburst, his thumb rubbing against Newt’s hand.

Newt grinned.

“You’re quite wonderful,” Newt said pulling Alby’s hand as the pair began to walk again.

“If he ate all the pizza though I’m throwing him out the window,” Alby said in a serious tone, although the slight curl of his lips gave away that he was joking.

“I’ll open the bloody thing for you.”

And when they laughed together Newt couldn’t help but think he’d just fallen in love.


End file.
